Kent County Cricket Club in 2005

Kent County Cricket Club in 2005 played their cricket in Division One of the County Championship and Division Two of the totesport League. They started the Championship at 11-2 to win it, behind Surrey and Warwickshire. Their first first-class game, however, was against the students of Cardiff UCCE. They fell to 104 for 6 before rain prevented any further play. They had little luck in their first Sunday League game, against Derbyshire, which was also abandoned through rain.

The match against Warwickshire at Canterbury was a close one. However, depressingly for Kent they could not finish the match off, and Warwickshire survived for the draw, 9 wickets down. Kent then went on to win their Sunday League game against Leicestershire narrowly on the Duckworth-Lewis method. They then drew with Gloucestershire in the County Championship, before losing to the Warwickshire Bears on the Sunday.

Kent came close to humiliation in the first round of the C&G Trophy, when they were bowled out for 160, though eventually they came home, dismissing Wiltshire for 151. Kent then made their highest-ever fourth innings total (447 for 9) as they held on for a draw against Hampshire, before taking advantage of an easy draw in the C&G Trophy, beating Derbyshire by 127 runs to go through to the quarter-finals. There then came a victory over Nottinghamshire and a close draw against Surrey in the Championship, which left them fourth at the end of May. They then beat Gloucestershire in a 3-day match at Maidstone, which also got them an eight point deduction for a poor pitch. However, in the next match it seemed anything but poor, as Derbyshire racked up 304 for 3 to win by 90 runs.

In June they beat Glamorgan easily in three days, before taking a solid National League victory at Taunton against Somerset, and going top of the table in the Championship after an innings victory over Warwickshire. The Twenty20 Cup kicked off the following week, and Kent almost set a record for poor performance - they lost six successive matches, before rain let them off with a no-result against Sussex and a win over Essex, which did nothing apart from permanently damage the Essex lads' chances.

Following the Twenty20 Cup, Kent still had not shook their losing habit, although losing the toss against Sussex probably had something to do with their 66-run loss - they were forced to bat in poorer conditions. A loss in the C&G Trophy quarter-finals followed, not all that surprising given Kent's one-day form, and that meant Kent's only realistic chances of winning anything this season were in the County Championship, and after giving up 457 runs in the first innings against Surrey that looked difficult. However, they chased 232 in 35 evening overs to take 21 points and retain the lead in the Championship. In a National League match shortened to 16 overs due to rain, Kent lost to Somerset by eight wickets, and they also lost to Warwickshire in a midweek match in the National League, but beat Yorkshire in their last match of July, also a one-day game.

The first match of August was an expected win over Glamorgan, by an innings and 124 runs, but their one-day promotion hopes were dented as they lost to Surrey. A drawn match with Hampshire followed, after two successive Championship victories, which meant that the title battle in Division One still was exciting. Bangladesh A were then defeated inside two days, but the margin of victory was only three wickets. Kent then got a National League no-result against Surrey, and rain continued to blight them as their match with Middlesex ended in a draw. They repaired their poor National League season somewhat, beating Yorkshire Phoenix and Scottish Saltires, but on the first Sunday of September they fell to 140 and lost by eight wickets to Durham Dynamos. With only nine points from their second Championship draw with Middlesex in three weeks, Kent trailed league leaders Nottinghamshire by 19.5 points before their match on 14 September. Needing a win to have any chance of Championship glory, they declared their way out of the match, and lost by 204 runs. They also lost their final three games - a home one-day game with Sussex, a Championship game at Sussex, and a League game with Leicestershire.